Leveling Pool Table Slate

Leveling pool table slate is pretty easy to accomplish but before I begin I want to address a concern that was brought up a couple of times by visitors to this site…

I quote, “…using sealing wax can cause issues. On hot days, it might melt, as well as when ironing the felt…”
I’m not sure how hot it gets where you’re located, but if it gets hot enough to start melting the wax inside your home, you probably live in the middle of a desert, and have no air conditioning..
And why on earth would a person iron their felt? It would take a lot to wrinkle the felt so badly it would need to be ironed prior to installation. Even if there are a few wrinkles in your felt, stretching it will remove them. Bottom line, don’t worry about the wax… It is a proven product that is inexpensive, it will do a great job, and you’ll be happy with it.

Leveling Pool Table Slate:Use your portable propane torch to heat up the joint between the two slabs of slate…this will help draw the wax into the groove, and give you a better seal. (you might notice what appears to be small cracks in the surface of the slate…this is not uncommon on an older table. The ones you see here can’t even be felt…if you have some like this, don’t worry about them. If you have a hairline crack that you can feel, run some wax over it as well.)

Melt the wax onto the surface of the joint.

An inch or two on each side of the joint is great.

Once the wax hardens (just a minute or so…if you allow it to get too hard, it will be very difficult to scrape it off.), use your putty knife to scrape off the majority of the excess wax, and then, use a razor blade to get it really smooth. Don’t allow the wax to sit for too long, or it will be very hard to scrape off the excess.

Scrape smooth with a single edge razor blade.

This is how it looks so far.

When its done, it will look, and feel as smooth as glass. Roll the excess that you scrape off with the putty knife back into the stick of wax. The excess that comes off with the razor blade, will have fine particles of grit in it and shouldn’t be used.